What a difference one day makes on the weather in our area. Today was an absolutely beautiful day……yesterday morning not so beautiful. We woke up yesterday to a yard that resembled an ice skating rink.
My husband was highly amused at me when I was ready to venture outside yesterday to let the girls out of the coop. I don’t think he actually realized how incredibly slick it was out there. Our standing joke is that we might fall and break a hip….realistically we aren’t kids anymore; so that isn’t too funny!
I first went out with the ice chipper gizmo that we have. I opened the door and tried chopping through the ice layer that was on the driveway so I would have somewhere to step without sliding. I quickly discovered that was not a good technique.
I was starting to think I might have to crawl out there or somehow sled my way over to the coop. (Now there is a visual image!) After a little brainstorming I decided to try using the ashes that had come out of the wood stove just that morning. They were still hot so I found a tin can to scoop them out with.
I am here to report that using hot wood ashes on ice is a great way to go! It kind of sizzled it’s way into the ice layer and gave a very nice path to walk on. The only downside was the tin can I was using to spread the ashes kept getting pretty toasty. I was pretty tickled with my ingenuity! Even my husband was slightly impressed with how well that worked.
Our trees hung onto their ice coating till this morning. Once the sun started hitting them it looked like it was raining under the trees. Huge drops of water and bits of ice kept sparkling in the sun as they dropped to the ground. There was something exquisite about a rain shower that resembled diamonds.
By this afternoon you needed boots to get across the yard as the ice had turned to mud. I think this might just be a really early foretaste of what spring will look like on the farmyard. It was wonderful to be outside and not have your fingertips get so cold they hurt.
The day just seemed to be issuing an invitation to venture out and see what it had to offer. That was an offer to good to pass up. My husband spent the day catching up on outdoor chores that had been put aside on the cold winter days. I also did some catching up with chicken chores. I must confess to several (okay more than several) long pauses spent just stopping and enjoying the day.
Today was a gift in it’s own way. It was a small vacation from the gray, cold that is winter. It was a promise of the seasons to come. I know it will not last. I know that winter is still here and will grace us with snow and more icy blasts before giving way to the warmth of spring. But for today, I will take the sunshine and the promise of days that smell of growing things and warm spring breezes.
“Despite the forecast, live like it’s spring.”
― Lilly Pulitzer
It was a beautiful day here as well! Sawyer walked the mile home from school and commented that he was hot! A wonderful respite from the frigid winter temps!
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I got a walk in yesterday as well! it was a little muddy on the gravel road that I walk on but it was so nice out there.
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Lovely descriptive post 🙂 we seem to have avoided most of the snow and ice (phew) great use of ashes!
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I did feel so brilliant with those ashes. It was also pretty satisfying hearing the ice sizzle :). Must be the kid in me!
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I am glad you had a sunny day there and wanted to be out to be with your girls. Did the girls enjoy a run in the icy yard ?
I love your ingenuity too.
Susie
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It was funny watching the girls. They always take off running when I let them out. Yesterday they started running but ended up skidding and sliding…..lots of wing flapping going on!
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But did they get cold ? Do they wear jackets ? i have seen pictures of hens wearing some sort of jacket.
Susie
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No they don’t wear jackets. They sit in the sun and fluff up their feathers. Birds have an amazing “R-value” when they do that.
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What is R-value ?
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R value is how they rate insulation that is put in buildings. The higher the R value the warmer you should be. I only know this because we did our own insulation in our home! The things you learn.
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I learnt something new too. How grateful we should be to live in climes where we need not have insulation or air conditioning put in.
Susie
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My husband and I were discussing that after I told him you had not heard of R-value. To us that would be so odd not to have a cold season and a really hot season.
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We are moderates. So I guess we are lucky that we just need electricity running all the time- that is our blessing. So our refrigerators and mixers and lights work.
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Beautiful picture of the tree! I love your inventive mind that came up with a great solution to the skate park problem!
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whoever said that necessity is the mother of invention was certainly right. I have a healthy fear of falling on the ice. I really hate the pain and soreness that happens with that….not to mention the injury to my pride LOL!
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I saw that horrible weather crossing Iowa and thought of you. I have used ashes from the wood stove as you did. Works pretty good. That mud when it thaws is always a mess. Did one of those girls in the coop venture out after you opened the door? As a past chicken owner, our girls stayed in the hen house all day when ice hit. Yes, live like its Spring.
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I always lure them out with a treat like old slices of bread. They did go running out and did lots of slipping and sliding and wing flapping yesterday. It was kind of fun to watch their reaction.
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I bet that was fun to watch. Lol
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It was. They are kind of like kids at school let out for recess.
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Was a school secretary for 15 years, so I know what that looks like – when its time for recess. Ha
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I’ll bet you do know what that looks like!
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Brilliant piece of initiative there, Faye! Love it!
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Thank you so much. I just really hate to slip and fall on the ice and have never learned to ice skate. The sizzle was very satisfying also!
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We haven’t reached the depths of winter here yet. I live in East Anglia in the UK (the bit which sticks out like a bottom eastwards lol) and we have our own microclimate here. A dusting of snow the other day but nothing to write home about and -4°C this morning apparently!
Yes, I wouldn’t like to say what would happen to my posterior if I hit the deck these days either. Tread softly, lass, use crampons 😉
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I am going to have to google -4C (ignorant on my Celsius to Fahrenheit scale).
I like that….”tread softly” I kind of shuffle along like I am 20 years older than I am. It does beat falling!
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The photo is beautiful and I hope that sunshine makes its way to Michigan soon!
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I hope you get some sunshine also! Gray days get kind of sickening after days and days of them. Do you find yourself squinting when the sun finally shines through?
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I can’t remember the last day I seen any sunshine. I imagine it will blind me when it does show up so I’ll have to wear those super dark sunglasses 😎
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Then you can also look like some type of movie star!!!! win win.
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Isn’t our God good? He gives us a break when we need it the most,even in weather terms. Hang in there Spring is out there .
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The break in weather is so welcome! Below zero temps are overrated. Though there is a weird goodness in that type of weather also. Maybe just so we are grateful for everything He gives us.
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When we have ice here, about half an hour before I know I need to go out, one of us will go out with a box of salt and throw it along a ‘pathway’ where we need to walk later. If you don’t have enough time …. you can use a bucket of sand into which you’ve mixed salt. The rough sand will give your shoes/boots purchase, and the salt will melt the ice.
GREAT post Chicken. I was there with you.
Sending squidges ~ Cobs. x
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any sand we might have had was frozen to the ground and I did not have enough salt to make it the whole way there….so ashes it was :)! I know a lady who used to scatter bird seed on the trail ahead of her for some gritty stuff. That way the birds had a treat also.
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Oooo … I LOVE that idea!
I really like the ashes idea though and, inside my [childlike] mind, I (want to) believe that you looked like a wonderful, Disney type sorceress, sprinkling a little pot of magical powders over the icy ground as you moved forward. As the magical powders hit the ice, the ice sizzled and began to ‘retreat’, as if told to do so!
I like this ‘vision’ of you, and your magical pot of enchanted powders, so I’m sticking with it.
lol. xxx
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Maybe that is why I had so much fun tossing those ashes around! It was kind of magical hearing them sizzle on the ice and it did have that wonderful poof of steam. I may have to try it again just to relive that moment.
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Back home in the land of ice and snow, seniors are buying YakTrax or similar traction devices to clamp to their boots! They’ve probably saved a lot of broken hips!
Here in the land of the sun and desert – it is cold and raining. Today it is almost the same temperature as it is back in the land of ice and snow. Go figure!
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I looked at those things to clamp on my boots and thought they looked pretty handy. I should have bought them when I saw them!
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Live like it’s spring desire the forecast. Smile like its sunny despite the clouds. It’s not what happens that matters as much as how we react to it. I like the positively persuasive quote you shared.
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Thank you so much!!! I really like it also. My dad would always tell us that the sun is always shining….you just can’t always see it. He is so right.
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Yes. He is so right!
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Again-I have missed some of your lovely posts!!! How!! I LOOK for yours! O well-getting caught up now. That tree is beautiful!!!
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It is an artificial one that we have had for years. I suspect it was much fuller at one time due to all the needles I keep sweeping up each year. I told my husband when it looks like Charlie Brown’s tree it will be time for a new one.
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I was looking at a real tree photo-haha! wished you could have seen my face when I read your comment! haha! thinking That is her Christmas tree???? I was on the Jan 18th post?
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hahaha. You know how the comments show up when you click on the bell? I read your comment there rather than on the actual post! For some reason I thought you were talking about the Christmas tree photo.
Nope the icy one is not our Christmas tree….I think it might be God’s Christmas tree…all decorated and sparkling with ice.
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I got whisked away for a weekend at the country cabin my husband and I spent part of our honeymoon in. We had no television or internet to distract us. Just the country and the horses! It was lovely!
Enjoying get caught up some today. 🙂
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I bet it was wonderful!
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It was!! Very simple, yet refreshing to be away and just see the horses for neighbors!
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